Iron & Wine - Light Verse Tour 2025

Settle in for a magical night of heartfelt musical storytelling and close harmonies. Iron & Wine, the project of singer/songwriter Sam Beam, is known for cinematic songs such as “Cinder and Smoke,” “Flightless Bird, American Mouth,” and his incredible version of The Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights” which have become synonymous with the movies Twilight and Garden State. Iron & Wine’s latest release Light Verse is praised for its “hushed acoustic sound…[and] incredible vitality” (Pitchfork).

When the pandemic began, and the world shut down, so did the process of creating

for Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam. In its place was a domesticity that the singer hadn’t

felt in a long time, and although it was filled with many rewards, making music was

not one of them. Reflecting on that time, Beam notes:

“I feel blessed and grateful that I and most of my friends and family made it

through the pandemic relatively unscathed compared to so many others, but it

completely paralyzed the songwriter in me. While so many artists, fortunately,

found inspiration in the chaos, I was the opposite and withered with the constant

background noise of uncertainty and fear. The last thing I wanted to write about was

COVID, and yet every moment I sat with my pen, it lingered around the edges and

wouldn’t leave. I struggled to focus until I gave up, and this lasted for over two

years.”

The journey back began with a recording session in Memphis to record a handful of

Lori McKenna tracks for the EP Lori with friend and producer Matt Ross-Spang.

“Recording has always been my favorite, and that session was an attempt to

reconnect with what I love most about making music. I could finally feel the blood

coming back into the body and the creative muscles beginning to relax and move

again.”

Soon a series of short tours were booked entitled “Back to Basics,” which, out of

necessity, were solo acoustic shows in smaller venues. They had an unspoken

weight to them for Beam and the audiences alike, and also an incredible sense of

relief for finally sharing art together and being back to work! A larger tour with

Andrew Bird followed in the summer of ’22, and Beam was inspired even more by

the excitement of collaborating with Andrew and his band and the warmth of

musical friends.

“By the time I got home, the paralysis had officially passed, and I was finishing

lyrics and booking studio time for what would become Light Verse!”

As Beam began to assemble the musicians he wanted for his record, one common

thread arose- they all lived in Los Angeles! Outside of his own pedigree, the

decision to work with engineer and mixer Dave Way at his studio Waystation high

up in Laurel Canyon was a logical step based on recommendations from two of the

joining players on the record. An additional session would also take place at Silent

Zoo Studio, where a 24-piece orchestra would lay claim to a handful of songs,

helping prepare them for lift-off.

“I’ve met and played with so many talented musicians from Los Angeles over the

years but never recorded there, and this felt like the perfect time to try. Tyler

Chester plays all the keyboards, Sebastian Steinberg plays the bass, David Garza

guitar and slide and stuff, Griffin Goldsmith, Beth Goodfellow, and Kyle Crane all

play drums here and there, and Paul Cartwright plays many various sizes of violin

and mandolin and wrote some wonderful string arrangements for the orchestra!

Even Fiona Apple was kind and generous enough to lend us her voice (that miracle

that sounds like both a sacrifice and a weapon at the same time) to a duet called

“All In Good Time.”

Beam lyrically once again takes focus on a series of both fictional and personal

insights, filled with desperate characters and wide-eyed optimists, offering promise

and a dose of heartache, tears and laughter, life and love. Taking stock in the

album’s title, he jokes, “Light verse is a form of poetry about playful themes that

often uses nonsense and wordplay, and it’s my first official Iron & Wine comedy

album!…. Just kidding….”

While true this may be Iron & Wine’s most playful record, Beam says the title

mostly reflects the way the songs were born with joy after the heaviness and anxiety

of the pandemic. Where recent records like Beast Epic or Weed Garden gave air to

the disquiet of middle-aged frailty and brokenness, these songs trade that for the

focus acceptance can bring. Moment by moment, they delight in being pointed or

silly (or both) and attempt beauty over prettiness.

Light Verse arrives April 26th, and it’s Iron & Wine’s seventh full-length overall

and fifth for Sub Pop Records. Fashioned as an album that should be taken as a

whole, it sounds lovingly handmade and self-assured as a secret handshake. Track

by track, its equal parts elegy, kaleidoscope, truth, and dare.

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